


Phantom Successors

by GaiusJD



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Future Fic, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-06-08 00:27:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15231357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GaiusJD/pseuds/GaiusJD
Summary: Akio and Mitsuko Amamiya are twins living in Tokyo with their parents Ren Amamiya, who runs cafe Leblanc, and Makoto Amamiya, the police commissioner.  The two of them are getting ready to start their second year of high school expecting a year just like any other.  Unfortunately, the year is going to be anything but expected.





	1. Chapter 1

As the clock display shifted to 0600 the built in radio began playing the early morning news causing the young teen in the bed next to its night stand to slowly sit up, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to wake up.  He had thick brown hair that he did his best to keep neat, a rather hard task somedays so he normally kept it short.  Although he got his messy hair from his father, Ren Amamiya, its color and his red eyes came from his mother, Makoto Amamiya.  The boy had a fairly athletic body, he wasn’t all muscle or anything but one could tell that he took care of himself and was physically fit.  This was thanks to his parents encouraging a healthy diet his entire life and his study of self-defense martial arts such as aikido, an activity he picked up from his mother as well.

Akio Amamiya listened to the male voice coming through the clock radio “Sounds like it’s going to be a nice day” the thought to himself.  It had rained for the past three days so the boy was glad to hear that he wouldn’t have to worry about getting wet.  He got out of bed and stretched as the radio host moved onto this morning’s headline story, his mood souring as the man began.

“Crime city wide has continued its uptick for the at least the 8th month in a row, according to experts, with last week’s quadruple homicide in Ikebukuro bringing the city’s darker side into the national spotlight once again.  Most of the most violent crime is gang related however the police have seemingly been unable to put forth a working plan able to combat the ever increasing crime in the city.  This has caused many to begin to question whether Commissioner Amamiya should-”

*CLICK*

Akio shut off the radio quickly, he knew what the man was going to say anyway.  There had been talk for months now that his mother was perhaps no longer up to the task of running the city’s police force, some of her critics going so far as to saying that she was “washed up” and that the mayor should force her to retire, although she was far from retirement age, or fire her and replace her with someone “more competent.”  It was something he hated hearing with every fiber of his being.  “Bull” he muttered, “maybe if the mayor hadn’t cut the police budget when he came to office, crime wouldn’t be an issue.” The boy shook his head and headed to the bathroom to take a shower and get the day started.

As Akio was busy preparing breakfast he kept an ear out for any noise coming from upstairs trying to figure out if he was going to have to rouse his twin sister out of bed.  With breakfast ready and his sister still not downstairs yet he sighed and headed back upstairs.  While his sister liked to sleep in she was responsible and usually had no issues getting up when she had to.  Upon getting to her room however he realized that she was in fact up, and not in a great mood.

“FUCKING BULLSHIT!” He heard her shout.  He opened her door and saw that she was yelling at her radio, a female radio host from a different station than what he was listening to earlier was _heavily_ criticizing the police force and their mother.  She turns to her brother, “Can you believe this bitch?!” she says arms crossed and face in a pout.  Like her twin Mitsuko had the same hair and eye color but she preferred her hair longer, her hair down past her shoulders and looking very messy, one could tell that she had slept primarily on her left side during the night.  She looked very much like their mother, causing Akio to suffer hearing other boys in school talk about how hot his sister was although they would quickly shut up when they met his intense glare.  The twins inherited the same frightening stare there mother has that made most people freeze up in fear when they were hit with it. Their father jokingly referring to it as the “Niijima death glare.” 

“Mitsuko,” Akio responds, “Your lucky mom and dad aren’t here. Honestly how does such a pretty girl have such a rotten mouth?” he teases, pointer finger aimed at his own mouth which had now formed a very smug grin very similar to the one their father was famous for.  Mitsuko launches a stuffed animal, buchimaru-kun in fact, at her brother’s smug face in retaliation.  He catches it, to her disappointment, and tosses it back on her bed in one fluid motion causing the blue-eyed black cat laying there to look his direction and give off a meow that sounded like he praising the boys reflexes.  “You shouldn’t get so worked up around Morgana, he’s an old cat you know, and the stress can’t be good for him” He said motioning to the cat who seemed to roll its eyes at Akio this time giving off a meow that sound very much like disapproval, although neither twin noticed.

“Nooooo, don’t say that! Mona is going to live forever!” Mitsuko retorted as she picked up the feline and snuggled him.  The cat purred and rubbed his head under the girl’s chin causing her to smile.  Her brother chuckled back, hands up in a surrender posture “Right sorry, anyway I’ve got breakfast ready so come on before it gets cold and then hurry up and get ready to go to Leblanc we promised dad we’d help him at the cafe.”  With the subject of food brought up Mitsuko’s eyes widened as she grinned “Right!” and she placed Morgana on the floor and followed her brother to the kitchen downstairs, Morgana following closely behind. 

 

“Thanks for the meal!” Mitsuko yelled enthusiastically.

The twins sit at the kitchen table eating the breakfast that Akio had made them, a healthy selection of white rice, natto, fried egg, and miso soup.  Morgana sits by the table as well eating his breakfast that had been left out for him by their father before he had headed to the café.  The cat being in an especially good mood since both twins had placed a little extra on his plate that they took from their own breakfast.  While the conversation starts off about the new school year that is about to begin next week, both couldn’t help but think of the news on the radio, with Akio finally brought it up. “I wonder...” he started. “I wonder how mom is doing.  She always seems tired when she comes home and she seems to come home later and later, not to mention she’s always gone before anyone else gets up.”

His sister paused looking down at the table not looking at anything in particular, “I’m worried too.  It can’t be easy having all these people saying those mean things about her, calling for her to resign from the job that she worked so hard to get, questioning her judgement.” She sighed. “I just wish things could get back to normal.  She works so much now it seems like we hardly ever see her.”

“You miss her, I mean she’s here but she’s not. Not really.” Akio states.  His sister nods.  There’s a pause and she looks up at her brother and grins.

“Although probably not as much as the resident _mama’s boy_.” Mitsuko rested her chin in her hands and stared at her brother smug grin across her face, no one knew how to push one’s buttons like one’s twin.  Akio felt his right eye twitch and glared back at his sister pointing his chopsticks at her “I’m not going to take attitude from _daddy’s little princess_.” Mitsuko slams her hands on the table as she stands up and leans forward over the table glaring at him.

“Oh I’ll give you attitude!”

“Bring it on sis!” Akio mimics her reaction so that they’re in each other’s face.

“I won’t go easy on you just cause you’re younger little brother!”

“One minute! One measly minute!”

“And I won’t need half that to kick your ass!”

Both twins stood with their faces inches away from each other glaring, until finally both broke out laughing and collapsed back into their respective chairs.  Fake fighting was something that they’ve done since they were little due to how much of a rise it got out of their parents and even without an audience they still seemed to find enjoyment out of it.  Their laughter was cut short suddenly however.

“MEEEOOOW”

Startled both twins turned to see Morgana now sitting on the kitchen counter looking at both of them.  Each had the same reaction when they looked at the clock the cat was sitting next to realizing they needed to hurry up and shot out of their chairs.

“Oh shit! I need to get ready!”

“I’ll get the dishes!”

“Thanks, I’ll be quick!”

As the twins split off to get ready to meet their father at the café neither one seemed to notice their cat shaking his head with a smirk on his face, or at least as much of a smirk as a cat’s face can have.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me a lot longer than I had originally hoped, but hopefully it turned out alright.

Ren stood behind the counter of Leblanc quietly enjoying a cup of freshly brewed coffee, taking a small break from getting the place ready for the day’s business and losing himself in the nostalgia that the café brought him.  He had lived in the attic during his 2nd year of high school and the place was filled with memories both of the average high schooler variety and as the leader of the Phantom Thieves.  It helped that the café still look much the same as it had back then.  He looked at the booths in front of him and could see his group of friends studying for finals, he chuckled remembering how screwed Ryuji was. 

He recalled memories such as Yusuke coming over to enjoy a cup of coffee and conversation while admiring the painting on the wall, Sayuri, Futaba and Ryuji coming over to play videogames and read comics, but his favorite memories were of Makoto, his girlfriend at the time and present day wife and mother of their children.  It was here that they had many of their firsts: their first kiss, which they botched horribly thanks to nerves, first Valentines and Christmas though those had been bittersweet, to the first time they made love. 

He sighed to himself for he had to admit, at least to himself, that their marriage was going through a little bit of a rough patch.  Work seemed to take up all of her time, leaving very little for him making him feel a little neglected; she swore that it was temporary and that once things at work got better everything would go back to normal and told him not to worry.  But that conversation was almost four months old and she just seemed to be getting more and more stressed out and he was beginning to very much worry about her. 

“Hey!” A sudden shout rang out.

Ren jumped with a startle and looked towards the origin of the voice and saw Morgana sitting on the chair in front of him. Ren hadn’t noticed him enter.

“You look like you were lost in thought” the cat continued, “everything ok?”

“Just fine Morgana, I was just reminiscing a bit” Ren replied.  Ren and the rest of the Phantom Thieves could understand and talk to Morgana, who himself was a member of the group, others such as Akio and Mitsuko just heard standard cat noises whenever he talked, something Morgana found frustrating at times.  

“Oh? I thought you look a little worried, if it’s about the kids I made sure they got out of the house on time.” the cat said looking proud of himself. “They should be here anytime now.”

Ren chuckled to his friend “Thanks but I wasn’t worried about them, Makoto and I have raised them pretty well so far I’d say. Plus they _really_ don’t like being grounded.” 

Morgana swayed his head and hummed a little before nodding in agreement, “I suppose so.”  A serious look came over his face and he looked back at Ren and asked, “Speaking of Makoto--” But Ren cut him off signaling that he didn’t want to talk about it.  “Well ok, I’m just worried is all; oh, I’m not the only one.  The twins were talking about how much they miss her and that they worry about her and such at breakfast. Just giving you a heads up.”  Before Ren could respond, the front door opens and the twins walk through the doorway.

“We’re here!” Akio announced with a smile. 

Mitsuko gave a similar greeting while waving to her father before she spots Morgana and gives him a curious look before bending down and rubbing his cheeks, “Aww did you come to help dad too?”  Ren chuckled softly listening to Morgana’s vain protest at the assault upon his face, his daughter rubbing just a little too hard it seemed, before deciding to save him.

“I see you “borrowed” something of your mother’s” he said pointing to an object on his daughter’s head, causing the girl to stand up straight again while placing a hand on the hairband in her hair with a slightly embarrassed look.  Meanwhile Morgana used the opportunity to jump off the chair and head for the stairs in the back of the café using the window upstairs to exit the café so he could go and explore the city as he usually did.

“D-do you think she’ll mind?” Mitsuko asked her father, hand still on the hairband Makoto used to wear when she was around the same age. 

“Not at all, it looks very good on you. Gorgeous, just like your mother” her father replied with a warm smile, causing his daughter to plush a little at the complement, and then he addressed both of his kids, “Alright it’s almost time so let’s get the café open and prepare for the morning rush.”  The twins nodded and quickly went to work after each donned an apron and Mitsuko put her hair in a ponytail.  

Before long the small café was filled with people eager for a cup of coffee before work or the delicious curry the café was also known for.  Business men and women in suits, police officers, elderly couples looking to get out of the house, and even teens were all attached to the café’s charm and well-made coffee and food.  The café had been featured in a few magazines over the years and was even in an episode of a series a local TV station had that went around Tokyo shining a spotlight on small business that were “hidden gems,” meaning that the café was busier than when Ren lived in the attic although the fact that it wasn’t right on the main road but down an alley kept it from ever being chaotic.

At the start Ren and Mitsuko manned the counter, taking orders, making coffee, operating the cash register and delivering orders to the people sitting in the booths while Akio manned the kitchen and helping out as needed if there weren’t any food orders. As the morning went on the twins would rotate so that the person in the kitchen could get a break from the heat.  Their father would have been willing to do some kitchen work as well but the regulars kept striking up conversations and Ren was all too willing to oblige them as it gave him an opportunity to either sell them another cup or brag about kids.

“Why yes this is my daughter! Mitsuko dear this is Mrs. Tomo she runs a flower shop down the street.”

“Akio poke your head out and introduce yourself to Mr. Kiamai”

“Yes they start their second year of high school at Roiyaru Academy.  That’s the one that opened four years ago, their first year was at Shujin but had to transfer due to the expansion and renovations going on, oh and they were to top of their class by the way.”

“Their mother and I _are_ very proud of them!”

The whole time Ren talked his smile never left his face and if he noticed the embarrassed looks on his kids’ faces whenever he started talking about them he didn’t show any signs of it.  He did finally take over the kitchen claiming that his throat was tired and left the twins to fend for themselves up front although it was nothing they couldn’t handle, the two worked very well together.  Eventually the morning slowed until finally the last customer had left and the twins breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well that wasn’t too bad.” Mitsuko remarked while wiping off the table the final customer had occupied.  “Oh I heard dad mention our new school are you as excited as I am? It looks soooo nice!”

Akio nodded towards his sister speaking with a smile, “Oh yeah, I mean Shujin was nice and it would be cool to graduate from the same school as mom and aunt Sae but Roiyaru looks really amazing.”  The two had gone on a tour of their new school with their father last week and had been impressed.  The school was bigger than their old one and was more up-to-date, unsurprising as it was brand new.  “Have you seen all the sports and clubs they have?”

“Yeah I was looking on their website the other day and they’re sure are a lot.” Mitsuko responded with wide eyes. “They even have fencing, maybe we should try that out what do you think?”

“You just want an excuse to stab at me with a sword.” Akio says arms crossed.  His sister responds with a fake maniacal laugh.  Akio then turns toward the kitchen and asks his father what he thought of the school, when he doesn’t receive an answer he pokes his head around the corner to peer into the kitchen.  He finds his father leaning against the counter by the stove, head down with his right hand pressed up to his head, his face in a grimace.

“Dad are you ok?” The boy asks.  Ren stands up in surprise and looks at his son and attempts to assure him that he’s fine but a throbbing pain in his head causes him to wince betraying his words.

“Liar.” His daughter speaks this time, now standing next to her brother, with a disapproving look on her face, but it shifts to concern as she continues, “You’ve got one of your migraines.  You can’t hide it from us, after ten years we know the signs all too well.”  She steps forward and grabs his hand. “Come on let’s get you upstairs so you can lay down on the futon, Akio will grab your meds.” 

Her brother nods and adds, “Don’t worry, if we start to get in over our heads down here we’ll give you a call but there’s no point in adding to your suffering by forcing yourself to work when it isn’t needed.”

Their father sighs and reasons to himself, “No point in arguing, especially since they’re right. Besides if I try to argue they’d just call their mother. Best not to get on the Queen’s bad side.” He then nods and allows his daughter to guide him up the stairs into the attic while his son grabs Ren’s medication before following. 

The attic had changed quite a bit since Ren used to live up there: the old couch had been tossed, age and the abuse of a certain pair of hyper toddlers had taken their toll, in its place was a small entertainment center with a nice television with DVD player and plenty of movies, across from it was a large beige couch with a black coffee table in front of it.  The shelves that had previously occupied the spot now sat further down the same wall and Ren’s bed had been replace with a nice dark brown futon.  The workbench where he once made infiltration tools for use in the metaverse was the only piece of furniture left from that time, although these days it was used for homework instead of making lock picks.  The twins did a lot of growing up in Leblanc, why pay for a sitter or daycare when they can just sit up in the attic watching movies, drawing in coloring books and such while dad’s downstairs?  Honestly Leblanc was like a second home to Akio and Mitsuko.

Mitsuko unfolds the futon and Ren slowly sits down and takes the medication and glass of water his son hands him, taking the pills and handing the empty glass back to Akio, before finally laying all the way down, placing a pillow over his face to avoid any light.  He mumbles a reminder that if they need anything to call him, the kids agree but assure him that they can handle themselves and Mitsuko bends down and hugs her father before the twins return downstairs.  Akio sends a txt message to their mother letting her know of their father’s condition as she keeps meticulous records of when and how long his episodes occur as according to Dr Takemi, a sudden increase in frequency of his headaches could be a sign of much more serious underlying condition.

 

On average the nation of Japan experiences some 1500 earthquakes a year and while most go almost completely unnoticed by the general population, some are so large in magnitude that they can cause mass destruction and loss of life.  Such a quake rocked Tokyo on June 9th ten years ago, causing widespread damage throughout the city leaving many injured, and all totaled some 3,000 deaths were attributed to the quake.  It was a day the twins would never forget.

On that day, Ren was in the kitchen of the apartment the family lived in at the time making the three of them lunch, when the shaking began.  The twins were sitting at the kitchen table and due to a combination of a natural desire to find a place to hide in scary situations and their fathers orders took refuge under said table, holding onto each other tightly like they often did during thunderstorms.  To this day they could clearly remember the feeling of the whole building moving beneath them, the sounds of everything seeming to fall out of the cabinets or shelves smashing when they hit the ground.  When they opened their eyes after everything died down they had expected to see their father under the table with them, but to their horror found him a few feet away face down on the floor with a small pool of blood forming next to his head, to this day Ren still wasn’t sure how exactly he hit his head whether something had fallen on him or the shaking caused him to lose his balance and smack into the kitchen counter.  They tried in vain to wake him for what felt like several minutes before Akio found Ren’s cell phone on the ground and called their mother as they had been taught to in emergencies. 

Thankfully by the time help arrived Ren had already regain consciousness and was able to move around and talk, although he was rather unsteady.  Ever since that day Ren has suffered chronic migraines.  They had forced him to retire from his political career as high stress was often able to trigger them leaving him unable to work as effectively.  Over time the frequency of these headaches lessened and medication helped but it took a while to find the right kind to work for him.  After a year and a half, Ren and Sojiro entered a partnership and became co-owners of café Leblanc, although Ren still refers to him as “Boss.”  While Ren enjoyed being a stay at home dad, he found himself becoming restless when the kids were at school and needed something to occupy himself and Makoto agreed that working at the café wouldn’t be too stressful to his health. 

 

Back downstairs the twins continued to work while their father rested.  Between rushes the café tended to be rather slow, and every so often the only people in the café would be those that were working.  It was during one of these times when Akio heard his phone ring.  He pulled it out of his pocket to check who was calling and his sister decided to tease him a bit to alleviate her boredom.

“Tsk tsk, so unprofessional,” she said sarcastically. “Is it a girl perhaps?” The teen giggled to herself.

 “Well it is mom so I mean technically yeah” Akio responded

“OH- well answer it!”

“But what about professionalism?” He asks with a sarcastic grin his face.  His sister tries to respond but he cuts her off by answering the phone, “Hi mom!”

“Oh, are you busy? It took you a while to answer, I can call back if you need to get back to work,” was his mother’s response.  If he had to guess she was in her spacious office, sitting in her high-back tan leather office chair with padded leather armrests at her rather fancy wood desk, behind her was a large window that offered a great view of the city.  She often joked that it was one of the best perks at her job.

“No I’m not busy don’t worry,” Akio responded, “you did get my txt right? Is that what you’re calling about?”

“Yes I did and thank you for telling me,” his mother responded “I was wondering if you had an idea when it actually started, his headache I mean.  It sounded like your father tried to hide it from you two.”  She sighs, “I wish he wouldn’t do that.”

“He just doesn’t like to make us worry is all,” Akio responds.  “But to answer your question his migraine probably started about 30 minutes before the txt I sent you.” He glances over to his sister who nods in agreement. “Mitsuko seems to agree as well.”

His mother lets out a chuckle, “Glad you two can agree on something.  So has it been busy? I imagine you both reek of coffee and curry by now”

“Not too bad, you know how it is usually here,” Akio says, then an idea forms in his head.  “Are you going to be home for dinner?”  His mother replies that it’s not likely, “Well what about tomorrow?  I could cook something for us all, I’m sure sis will help too.  It’ll give dad a little break, and sis and I can show off what we’ve learned from dad and grandpa Sojiro.”

“Well,” his mother responds, “that does sound nice. I’ll be sure to be home tomorrow.”

The two talk for a little while longer before he hands the phone to his sister who had been signaling that she was wanted to talk to their mother as well.  After their conversation raps up Mitsuko hands him his phone back and he puts it back into his pocket.

“So do you know what we’re going to make?” Mitsuko asks her brother.

“Not yet but I have some ideas.” He responds. “Want to know what you’ll be in charge of?” She responds with a nod.

“You,” Akio speaks in a dramatic tone as he points to his sister, “are in charge of dessert!”

Mitsuko pumps her fist, “Yessss,” she exclaims and she pulls out her phone typing a message to someone. 

“Who are you messaging?” Akio asks.

“Aunt Ann.” Was his sister’s reply.

Akio frowns, “That’s practically cheating. Come up with something yourself!”

Mitsuko responds by sticking her tongue out at him and Akio responds similarly.  Both think to themselves that it’ll be nice having dinner with all four of them.  The twins now looking forward to dinner tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 3

Akio sat on the couch in the family room watching TV eating breakfast.  It was the last Friday of vacation before the new school year so he decided to indulge a little bit and allow himself a lazy morning, not even getting out of bed until almost 9 a.m.  After finishing his food he began reading through the guide to find something more interesting than the news or the weather to watch, finding a marathon of the three Phoenix Ranger Featherman movies that came out when he and his sister were in elementary school causing a wave of childhood nostalgia to hit him.  Figuring that this was something Mitsuko would enjoy he decided go and get her out of bed, she’d slept in enough anyway.

Entering her room he found her still in bed as expected with the covers pulled over her, probably to block the sun coming from the window over her bed.  He didn’t see Morgana so he figured that the cat was under the covers as well, likely dragged under by Mitsuko and being cuddled like a teddy bear.  Sleeping with stuffed animals like Buchimaru was something she said she’d outgrown but letting the family cat cuddle up next to her during the night was “grown up” enough. Akio walked over to the bed and bent down so that he would be about eye level to his sister and began poking her head through the cover.

“Hey, Sis.” Akio said plainly, “Wake up” *poke* “Wake up” *poke* “Mitsuuuuuuuuuko”

Finally he could hear movement under the covers and part of the covers moved enough so that one lone red eye was glaring back at him, attempting to bore a hole through his head.

“Has school started yet?” She asked in a tired and annoyed tone.

“No?”

“Does mom or dad need us for anything?”

“Well no.”

“Is it time to cook dinner?”

“Of course not.”

“Then. Go. Away.” The covers moved back to their original position and the eye disappeared. “Morgana and I are perfectly fine sleeping the whole morning away.” A soft purr could be heard coming from somewhere under the covers.

“Alright,” Akio responded, “I’ll just go back and watch the Featherman movie marathon by myself then.”

The covers moved again and the eye reappeared.  Mitsuko looked at her brother, cheeky grin on his face, “Are you serious?”

“Yep”

“No bullshit?”

“Starts in five minutes.”  Akio’s grin never left his face as Mitsuko stared him down seemingly trying to see if her brother was lying or not. He looks at the clock in her room then back to her, “Four minutes.”

“Ok, ok,” Mitsuko said.  She sat up and stretched, groaning a little bit.  Morgana jump off the bed and rubbed up against Akio’s leg, the boy returned the affection by scratching the cat’s head before standing up and heading toward the door, Mitsuko following shortly after.

The twins spent the rest of the morning and the beginning of the afternoon in front of the TV.  Akio lay across the couch while Mitsuko sat in front of the coffee table, blanket draped over her shoulders, with Morgana on her lap. She held a spoon in each hand, one for her bowl of cereal and the other she used to spoon feed Morgana his own breakfast, which made for a rather funny scene.  Akio was a little disappointed she never got the two spoons confused, he would have busted a gut if his sister accidently ate cat food mistaking it for her cereal.

 

Ren came home a few hours after lunch finding his two children had been replaced by potatoes.

“Enjoying your last few days of freedom I see.” He says to his kids.

Mitsuko looks away from the screen towards him, “You jealous?”

Ren takes a sip of coffee from his travel mug, “Maybe, you kids got everything you need to make dinner?”

“Yep got everything yesterday.” Akio responded, “Grandpa Sojiro take over for you?”

Ren nodded as he went into the kitchen to grab a snack and a drink that wasn’t coffee, after which he came back into the family room and sat down in his recliner by the couch.

“By the way dad,” Mitsuko began saying. “You’ve never told us exactly why you ended up living in Leblanc’s attic or why you had to transfer schools your second year.”

“Yeah, you always told us that you’d explain when we were ‘older,’ whenever we tried to ask when we were kids.”  Akio says.  “So now that we are the same age as you were back then, can we know the story now?”

Ren sighed to himself, he knew he would have to tell them eventually, hell he was surprised they waited until now to ask.  “Alright, the reason I had to transfer schools was because I got expelled from my original high school because I got convicted of assault and ended up on probation for a year.  Shujin was the only school that would take me in while I was on probation, the principal, rest his soul, wanted to use me to show that his school could reform even criminals like me back onto the straight and narrow.”

The twins sat wide eyed staring at their father, after of few seconds in shock they finally responded in unison, “Bullshit”

“It’s true”

“No way!” Mitsuko said.

“Hold up you were on probation when you and mom started dating?  The current police commissioner married a convict?”  Akio said in amazement.

“Well I was later proved innocent and had my sentence over turned, but yeah.  You should have heard the rumors that swirled around the school about me.”  Ren said with a chuckle, after so many years he could laugh about it.  He then went into more detail about his arrest and how his sentence got overturned and even about the rumors the students told each other about him, he left out any Phantom Thieves business though.  Ren and Makoto had decided that there was no reason to tell their kids that, they wanted them to have as normal of a life as possible.

“Wow,” was the only response he got from his kids, but they were able to collect themselves pretty quick.  Akio was the first one to talk.

“Huh guess that explains why you and mom were so adamant about getting all the facts back when our school said I assaulted one of my classmates.”

“I’d like to think it was because we are such good parents,” Ren said with a smile.

“Can we not talk about the time Akio almost got expelled for breaking my bully’s nose?” Mitsuko said, slightly embarrassed.

“For the record,” Akio said, “her nose wasn’t actually broken.”

In the first year of middle school a girl named Nariko Noya and her friends would constantly harass Mitsuko, who hadn’t come out of her shell yet and so had difficulty standing up for herself.  Their teacher was friends with Nariko’s mother and so didn’t do much to stop said bully.  One day while she stepped out of the classroom for something Nariko began verbally harassing Mitsuko and when she told her bully to stop Nariko pulled Mitsuko’s hair hard enough pull some strands of hair out by the root, causing the poor girl to cry out in pain, Akio then punched her right in the nose in a flash of blinding rage.  When their teacher came back into the room and saw Nariko on the floor blood pouring out of her nose and Akio standing up and yelling at her to leave his sister alone with blood still on his knuckles she had school security drag Akio to the principal’s office under the accusation that he had assaulted his fellow student without cause while she escorted Nariko to the nurse.  Akio was known to have a temper, although he had never gotten violent before, so the teacher had hoped that the principal would take her word for it and not look into the matter too closely.

This unfortunately left Mitsuko in the classroom, still reeling from what just happened, with Nariko’s two friends who tormented her saying that her brother was going to get expelled, even arrested and now that her brother wasn’t there to protect her if she thought things were bad before to just wait.  Thanks to cell phones most of the school heard about the incident pretty quickly and when one of Mitsuko’s classmates announced that a friend of his in another classroom had seen a uniformed police officer enter the school she ran out of the room in a panic toward the principal’s office to try and defend her brother.  She ended up running into the officer, who was actually her mother, the police commissioner, much to her relief, along with her father in the hall not far from the office and tried to explain what happened but was too worked up to explain clearly.  Ren stayed with her to help her calm down, while Makoto went to the office to find Akio and see what the principal had to say. 

Thankfully for Akio his mother refused to believe that he would attack someone without reason and demanded that the principal investigate the matter further before giving out any punishments.  After reviewing several video recordings from Akio’s classmates it was obvious that he was defending his sister and so any ideas of getting the police involved was dropped.  However, the principal believed that Akio should still be expelled for violating the school’s zero tolerance policy when it came to violence but Ren and Makoto were able to convince him not to with the promise that he would take anger management therapy.  In the end Akio was suspended for one week of school on top of having to undergo said therapy while his sister’s bully somehow only got a three day suspension for bullying.  After the semester was over Ren and Makoto transferred their twins to another middle school where they had a much more positive experience.

 

“So did anyone give you or mom crap after you started dating?” Mitsuko asked trying to change the subject.

“Most kids just avoided me and we kept our relationship hidden for most of the year, but a group did come up to me one time during lunch and ‘warned’ me about hurting the student council president after it finally came out.  Unfortunately for them they didn’t see your mother coming over and they ended up getting scolded.  It was fun watching them walk away with their tales between their legs.”

The twins nodded toward their father with an uneasy smile on their faces.  They knew what it was like to be scolded by their mother, although they didn’t pity those students.  The three of them spent the next hour or so talking, Ren answering his kid’s questions about his time in jail, whether he was scared and how he was able to deal with the terrible rumors at his school.  At one point the twins stopped and gave their dad a hug, the three of them embracing for a few seconds before Ren pulled away and gave them each a pat on the shoulder and reassured them that he was fine with what happened in his past.  The three of them then went back to talking and watching television until it was time to start making dinner.

 

Makoto meanwhile was having a rather stressful day.  She was buried in paperwork: arrest reports, operation briefings and various personnel requests; and with the media constantly reporting on the police’s failure to curb the rising crime rate, Makoto found herself becoming increasingly more stressed.  She was doing all she could of course but for some reason every net she cast almost always came up with disappointingly small results.  To small she thought, there was no way that so many operations could end in so few arrests.  Hell, there were even some large operations that netted no arrests or information at all much to her embarrassment.  Although she wouldn’t say it out loud, she was convinced that various criminal organizations had informants in police ranks.  She and the previous commissioner had worked hard to rid the force of dirty cops but it was becoming increasingly obvious to her that they hadn’t done enough.  A knock at her door called her attention.

“Come in.” She called

The door opened and her deputy commissioner, Takashi Ogura, entered her office with a folder in hand.  Takashi was a man that Makoto had known since her academy days and was a very loyal person and someone Makoto knew she could trust.  She hoped he had good news.

 “I’ve got some bad news boss,” Takashi said. ‘ _Of course_ ’ _,_ Makoto thought to herself while she motioned for him to sit at one of the chairs in front of her desk.

“It’s about that new drug that’s been hitting the streets of major cities around the country.  ‘Blue Jet’,” Takashi began while taking a seat.  Blue Jet was an illegal drug that came in a blue capsule that was capable of giving people a tremendous amount of energy on top of the euphoric high it gives the individual.  It also drastically increases the person’s heart rate to dangerous levels sometimes causing death; in fact the ‘blue’ part of the name actually came from the color a person’s lips would turn if they ended up overdosing as their body would struggle to get the oxygen it needed causing the individual to essentially suffocate.

“More overdose cases?” Makoto asked.

“Not so far no,” Takashi replied. “We’re luckier than some other cities like Kyoto in that regard, but look at this.”  He pulls out a photo from the envelope he was holding.  Makoto studied it, it appeared to be a bunch of Blue Jet capsules but they were a slightly different shape and had a white stripe.  “It’s a new form of Blue Jet, basically a lighter version.  It’s cheaper to make and therefore sell although still just as dangerous.  Especially considering the market they are going after, found these on a high school student.”

Makoto’s eyes went wide and she suddenly felt a sick feeling in her stomach. ‘ _God they’re targeting kids with this stuff_?’

“The drug task force is already aware of the situation and are taking the necessary measures, I just wanted to keep you in the loop.”

“Thank you Takashi.” Makoto sighed, she’d have to warn her kids when she got home. “Anything else?”

“Nah, I just wanted an excuse to get out of my box,” Takashi said with a light chuckle.  “Well I better get back though, if I’m late for dinner again my wife will kill me.”  He said while getting up and walking to the door.

Makoto chuckled back in response, “I know what you mean.  I’ve got to make sure I get home in time for dinner as well.  My kids wanted to treat me so I promised I’d be home in time.”

“Aw sounds nice, well you have a good night Commissioner.”

“You as well.”  Makoto said.  With Takashi gone she returned to her work trying to get through as much as possible so that she would be able to go home and not have to worry about trying to catch up tomorrow.  It would be nice if she didn’t have to come in early tomorrow as well, it had been too long since she and Ren had spent the morning together as she was normally already gone by the time he woke up.  After working diligently for another hour she was feeling confident that she was going to be able to do just that.  However, a knock on the door would spell disaster to that plan.

The man who walked into her office wore a fancy dark blue pinstripe suit with a red tie.  He had dark brown hair that was slicked back with a hint of grey on the sides and brown eyes, to most people Yoshinori Tsukino appeared to be a charming and handsome man, however Makoto held nothing but disdain for the city’s mayor.  She stood up to greet him with a smile nonetheless.

“Why Mr. Tsukino I had no idea you were stopping by,” Makoto said while greeting him with a slight bow.  “Would you like something to drink perhaps? I can call my secretary to bring you something.”

“Oh no that’s quite alright, my fault for not having my assistant give you a heads up.  I won’t be long anyway.” He said with a pleasant smile on his face.  The two walked over to Makoto’s desk.

“Well what can I do for you sir?” Makoto said as she sat down at her desk.

“I have been worried as of late Commissioner,” Tsukino began, the pleasant smile no longer on his face as he was now donning a more serious expression.  “The crime rate in the city just seems to keep growing as of late and the media is full of criticism of our cities finest, yourself included.”

“Yes I am all too aware of that mayor, and I can assure you that I am doing everything that I can to rectify the situation.”  Makoto responded.  “It might take a little time but I am confident that I can get it under control.”

“Hmm,” Tsukino began, “I hope not too much time for your sake.” He then slide the envelope he was holding across her desk.  Makoto with took it with a slightly confused expression on her face and opened it up to look at the contents.  Inside was a resignation form, almost completely filled out, dated the first of May and with her name on it, the only thing missing was her signature.  Makoto didn’t say anything as she read the form in its entirety, then going over it again.  She really did feel sick now although she did her best to hide her emotions from the man in front of her.

“As you can see,” He began, a smug look on his face, finally dropping all pleasantries.  “Everything is ready to go, the city council has already approved it although they insisted I give you some time to give you a chance to prove that you’re still as competent as you were when you convinced the government not to declare martial law ten years ago.  Although I’m starting to wonder if you’ve just been lucky all this time.  As you can see you’ll be still be entitled to a portion of your pension, although it wouldn’t be as much as normal considering the circumstance of your departure but I feel it is more than fair.”

Makoto glared back at him, it most definitely wasn’t fair.  Even with the income Ren made at the café they would have to sell the house and move somewhere cheaper if she couldn’t find a good enough job, but didn’t say anything instead continuing to give him her signature deadly glare.  “Oh my how scary.” He said mockingly.  “Well I must be going, I’ve an important dinner to get to and I mustn’t be late.  Don’t worry I can see myself out.”  After leaving her office and closing the door behind him he turned to his assistant and said, “Damn bitch didn’t even squirm” before leaving the building. 

Makoto cursed and slammed her fists onto her desk. “Damnit!,” she said while gritting her teeth, how could she let it come to this.  She knew the mayor had it out for her but she thought she’d have more time before he tried to pull something like this.  She had to come up with something to save her job.  She had a few operations in the planning stages but she was taking her time trying to withhold as much information as possible to try and prevent them from being spoiled by leaks, she might have to try and speed things along and pray for the best.  She quickly dived back into her work to try and figure out the best way to save her job.  It wasn’t until her husband called that she realize that she was two and a half hours late for dinner.  “Damnit” she muttered before quickly heading out.  Tomorrow would have to be an early one for sure.

Returning home she found her family waiting for her, the twins were on the couch watching television while Ren sat at the dinner table reading.  She could tell from his body language that her husband was upset and she knew that she was going to have to come clean and tell him what happened.  This wasn’t something she could keep from him but she wasn’t about to let the kids know, they had enough to worry about with school.

“Long day at work mom?” Akio said as the twins gave their mother a hug.

“You could say that, sorry I’m late,” Makoto responded squeezing both of her children.  She took this opportunity to mouth the words ‘we have to talk’ to Ren who gave her a nod in return to show her that he understood. 

“We already ate but don’t worry we saved you a plate.” Mitsuko said, “Just got to reheat it, go ahead and sit down, we’ll bring everything to you.”

“Anything in particular you want to drink?” Akio asked.

“Tea is fine, thank you” Makoto responded as she sat down next to her husband.  The boy nodded and he and his sister went to grab everything.  Makoto trying to relax let out a sigh as she leaned back in the chair, she felt a hand on hers and saw Ren giving her a reassuring grin.  It seemed that letting him know her desire to communicate had lightened his mood, or perhaps he could just tell she had a bad day and decided he could be mad later.

The dinner that her kids made for her was quite delicious, even if it did have to be reheated.  The meal consisted of steamed white rice topped with vegetables, miso soup, salad and grilled fish.  For dessert Mitsuko had made coffee jelly topped with vanilla ice cream and sprinkles, which the girl insisted were absolutely necessary.  Afterwards she talked with her kids about their day, whishing she could have seen the look on their faces when Ren told them the truth about why he transferred to Shujin.  She also found herself jealous of their ability to just be lazy and watch movies all day in their pajamas, something that she hadn’t been able to do in a long time.  Makoto also warned her children about the new drug that some people were trying to sell at high schoolers, although Mitsuko and Akio assured her that they were smart enough to stay away from drugs.  Eventually the twins went upstairs to play videogames in their game room, leaving Makoto and Ren by themselves at the dinner table.

Ren turned to his wife and began to speak after making sure he heard the door upstairs close, “So, you wanted to talk about something?”

“Ye-yes,” Makoto replied.  She took a deep breath ‘ _just ease into it, don’t hit him with the bad news all at once. Be tactful_ ,’ she reasoned trying to plan out exactly how to break it to him.  She then turned to him and said, “I… um, err.” She found it hard to get out the right words before finally stammering out, “I might be out of a job end of next month?” ‘ _Real smooth Makoto_ ’

“What,” Ren said, eyes bugging out of his head.  “Makoto are you serious?”

“I’m afraid so,” she was looking down at the table now.  “The mayor came in shortly before I was planning to leave and gave me this.”  She handed Ren the resignation form from her brief case and he looked it over, studying it carefully.

“I had no idea things were so bad,” Ren said, “I just assumed the news was exaggerating like they do.”

“I didn’t think things where that bad either but the mayor has had it out for me since he came into office so I guess he decided that this was his opportunity to get rid of me.”

“What did you do to piss this guy off?” Ren asked “Do you even know?”

 “I am fairly certain it has to do with a childhood friend of his.”  Makoto said.  Ren looked at her with a confused look and she continued.  “It seems that after high school one of his friends ended up joining a gang, making and selling drugs.  I don’t think the mayor had anything to do with it because he moved to Kyoto after high school and didn’t come back to Tokyo until six years ago.  Anyway eventually this gang ended up getting busted but a few of them tried to shoot at the officers including the mayor’s friend who had become the leader and he ended up getting killed in the gun fight.”

“I think I remember this,” Ren said.  “You were a captain at the time, right? Wait you were the one in charge of the operation!  You even made the news it was one of the biggest drug busts in the city’s history! Oh shit, he blames you for his friend’s death, doesn’t he?”

Makoto nods, “I’m pretty he does, although he’s never outright said anything about it.  I just figured everything out by investigating any connections between me and him that could have been responsible for the bad blood between us.”

“Shame no one dug this up during the election,” Ren said

“Agreed,”  Makoto responded.

“Wonderful,” Ren said with a sigh.  “I’m assuming that you were late because you were busy coming up with a plan?”

“Of course,” Makoto said confidently.  “I am not going out without a fight.  Although I’ll have to deal with the _rats_ in the house though.”

“Got a dirty cop problem?”  Ren asked, Makoto nodded.  “Jeez, no wonder you’ve been having so much trouble.  Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”  He leaned in close to her, “you know you can always lean on me~”

Makoto giggled a little bit, “Oh don’t worry.  A clever cat eats cheese and breathes down rat holes with baited breath.”

“Oh god that was bad even by my standards,” Ren laughs.

“Hmm, but in all seriousness though this is going to be an uphill battle and I’m not sure what we’ll do if I… fail.”  Makoto remarked.

“Then let’s make a deal,” Ren said with a smile causing Makoto to give him a confused look.  “You worry about saving your job and I’ll worry about what to do if you don’t manage to.  That way you won’t have to worry about what to do if you lose your job because I’ll have already taken care of it.”

“Alright, deal.”  Makoto responds and the two shake hands.  “We’re not moving back in with my sister though.”

“Hell no we are not!”

“I’m not going to mooch off of Haru either.”

“Well then I’ll mooch off of her and you can mooch off of me.”  Ren said with a wink.

“You’re awful!”  Makoto laughed.

“Hey you knew what you were getting when you married me.”

And the two began laughing together, something that Makoto was expecting to do after her meeting with the mayor, but with Ren she felt like she could surmount any obstacle.  It was one of the many reasons that she loved him so much.

“I will add one thing though.” Ren said

“And that is?”

“That you start taking care of yourself like you used to before all this.  That means getting a full night’s sleep and eating right again.  Don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’ve been lax with your nutrition.  You’ve always been very particular about what you eat.”

“What? Ren sometimes I don’t have time to-”

“You’ve always found time before.  Besides if the Queen is going to pull this off she needs to make sure that she is in top form right?” Ren says with a sly grin.

“Oh, fine.  You’re right and I’m too tired to argue anyway.”  Makoto says.  Suddenly Ren scoops her up into his arms and begins to walk toward the stairs.  “Ahhh Ren! Put me down I can walk!”

“I’m sorry but your majesty has denied me of my fun for too long.  Now please let your Joker take care of you.”  He says before leaning in to kiss her.  He carries her all the way to their bedroom and closes the door Makoto blushing and smiling the whole way.

 

Akio and Mitsuko were still in the game room, Mitsuko was pacing back and forth obviously agitated while Akio was on the couch, hand under his chin like he was thinking.  The truth was that when Ren heard the door close earlier the twins didn’t actually go into the room instead using the noise to make their parents believe that it was safe to talk.  The twins had heard the whole conversation, only quietly retreating when they heard their parents get up from the table.

“I can’t believe this bullshit!” Mitsuko exclaimed angrily.  “That mayor is an asshole!”

“I know,” Akio said calmly.

“And those cops should be ashamed!  They are supposed to uphold the law not help criminals, DAMNIT!”

“I know.”

“And how can dad be so calm about all this.  He was even making jokes like it was no big deal!”

“That’s just the way dad is, plus he was probably trying to get mom to relax.”

Mitsuko then spun around and looked at her brother, “how can you act so calm?”

“Anger management remember? Taught me how manage my emotions haven’t you noticed how I’m always so cool?”  He replied with a slight grin on his face.

“Don’t give me that shit!  I know you better than anyone.  All you do is put on a mask to hide your feelings and bury them deep down.  That can’t be healthy you know, how many ruined stress balls are in your desk drawer right now?  Don’t’ tell me you’re not angry you can’t hide from your twin!”  Mitsuko replied still agitated.  It was then that Akio finally stood up and moved towards his sister, removing the “mask” that she had mentioned.

“Of course I’m angry!” He hissed, causing Mitsuko to recoil in surprise.  “I’m fucking furious! Why wouldn’t I be?!  But you know what?  There’s no point really is there because there is not a _damn_ thing we can do!  We’re just teenagers, kids!  He have no power, no authority.  All we can do is sit back be good students and not get in anyone’s way and hope it all works out!  We are _powerless_!”  Akio, now out of breathe, was standing over his sister with his fists clenched but still down at his sides and eyes full of rage, upon finally recognizing the shocked look on her face Akio realized he might have gone a little too far.

“I- shit sis I’m sorry,” he said apologetically, “you didn’t deserve that.  I’m really sorry I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No it’s alright I shouldn’t have provoked you,” Mitsuko said.  She then moved forward and hugged her brother to reassure him that there truly were no hard feelings and to help calm him down.  “And I know you’d never hurt me even if you were _really_ mad.  I wasn’t scared and… you are right, there’s nothing we can do.”

Akio returned her embrace with his own muttering, “thanks and sorry again.”  The two stayed like that for a few seconds while Akio calmed down before breaking apart and deciding that now would be a good time to go to bed.  While Mitsuko’s room was closest to the game room she waited for her brother to get to his door.  Both twins looked back at one another and wished the other good night before opening their doors.  As Mitsuko did she looked and the ground and noticed something was missing or rather someone.

‘ _Where is Morgon—WHAT THE FUCK,_ ’ Mitsuko stood frozen just a foot into her room staring at an all-black female figure cloaked in gold flames sitting backwards in her chair at her desk, arms across top of the chair supporting its chin.  She could feel the heat coming off the flames but they were not burning any of the objects around the figure, not even the chair and somehow the feeling felt familiar.  Upon noticing Mitsuko the figure lifted its head up and gave Mitsuko a sly grin and a wink before the flames around the figure erupted, blinding the girl. When she could see again the figure was gone.  ‘ _HOLY SHIT_ ’

Akio was having a similar experience in his room.  He stood in his doorway staring at a male figure that was leaning up against the wall directly across from the doorway.  This figure however was a dark red and cloaked in black flames.  Upon eye contact the figure stood up straight and began walking toward Akio with a grin its face.  He could feel the heat coming from the flames but like with the figure in Mitsuko’s room it didn’t burn anything and something about it felt familiar to him.  Halfway between Akio and the wall it had been leaning on the fames around the figure erupted causing Akio to shield his face, when he looked back it was gone. ‘ _HOLY CRAP’_

Both twins took a step backwards and were now back in the hall.  Each one looked towards the direction of the other and could see on the other’s face that they had just shared a similar experience.  Psychically each one asked the other the same question:

**“ _WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT_???!”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wish this didn't take me so long, ended up completely revising the chapter halfway through. Hopefully in the future I won't take almost a whole month for a chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I finally updated! Also I changed the rating because I wasn't sure if the content in this chapter was quite appropriate for the 'teen' rating. Better safe than sorry.

The twins sat at the kitchen table eating breakfast not saying a word.  Neither one slept all that great last night as last night’s “event” left them more than a little freaked out.  Their parents were already gone to work before they got up so they once again had the house to themselves.

“So” Akio said looking up from his breakfast towards his sister, “we going to talk about--”

“Nope” Mitsuko responded not looking up from her bowl of cereal.

“You sure?”

“Yes, look what happened last night was… the weirdest thing to happen to anybody I’d imagine.  Nobody would believe us if we told anyone, not even mom and dad.  Hell I barely believe it.”  Mitsuko said.

“Yeah if you hadn’t experienced the same thing I’d probably think I was absolutely insane.”  Akio replied nodding his head.

“We might both be to be honest,” Mitsuko said with a small laugh.  They both then turned their attention back to breakfast, an awkward silence taking over only broken by the sounds of silverware clanking against the sides of bowls and Akio taping through his phone.  Akio suddenly stopped mid chew as his eyes came across an app that he didn’t remember installing.

“Hey sis, was there an update that added anything to our phones recently?”  He asked his sister with a perplexed look on his face.

“Uhhh, no I don’t think so.  Why?”  Mitsuko responded, slightly confused by her brother’s question.

“There’s an app that I don’t remember being there before.”  Akio said.  He turned his phone around so that Mitsuko could see the screen.

“What is that?”  She said as she walked around to the other side of the table to get a better look.  “I’ve never seen that app before.”  She looks through her phone, “Hey I have it too!”

“Weird,” Akio says, he taps the icon, “I wonder what it does?”

“Hello, welcome to the Metaverse Navigator 2.0!  Your one stop shop for all your metaverse needs!  We’ve made some improvements to the navigator based on user feedback that we think you’ll appreciate.  One of the biggest upgrades we have made is that after finding a palace’s entrance, you will be able to enter it from anywhere in the real world, not only that but when you exit using the app it will bring you to the spot you entered from.  This means that after you have located a palace and entered and exited the first time you will be able to enter the palace again from a safe location and using the navigator app return to said safe location!  This will help keep unwanted eyes from spying you!  Would you like to give this feature a try?  A place location has already been pre-installed to help you get back in the game.  If now is not a good time you can enter the palace when you are ready by opening the navigation app and selecting the ‘Palaces’ tab.”  A small window appears with two options “yes” and “later.”

“Is this a game?”  Mitsuko says “have you ever heard of a ‘metaverse’?”

“I have no idea” Akio responds.  He turns to his sister with a grin, “should I say ‘yes’?”

“What? What if it’s a virus or something?  We don’t know what it is!”

“Eh if it’s a virus Aunt Futaba can get rid of it.”  Akio moves his finger to tap the screen.

“Wait!”  Mitsuko shouts causing her brother to stop.  “If we are going to possibly put a virus on your phone,” a large grin comes across her face, “I want to do it!”  She then reaches across Akio and taps the ‘yes’ button on his screen.

“Hey no fa—Urk!” 

The twins both recoil as a sudden headache hits them.  Their vision blurs and a wave of nausea nearly causes them to collapse.  They don’t notice as the world around them shifts to a scene much more different than their kitchen.  As the feelings begin to pass and their vision begins to clear, the voice from the navigator speaks once again.

“Welcome to the palace of Obi Matsunaga, who sees himself as a great merchant in charge of a wealthy trading post on the Silk Road.  In reality he is a violent drug dealer who sells deadly drugs even to high schoolers.  It should be noted that this palace isn’t fully formed and so no calling card is necessary to steal the treasure.  As such the shadows in this palace are weak, perfect to shake the rust off! Welcome back, Joker!”

“Joker? What? Was this for dad?”  Akio exclaimed dusting sand off his clothes ‘wait sand?’ he thought to himself.

“I don’t know,” Mitsuko responded.  She looked around eyes wide at their surroundings, “Why are we in some town in the desert?”

The twins surveyed their surroundings, they were no longer in their kitchen but in an alley way in what looked like a small town or hamlet surrounded by a high wall in the desert.  Behind them was a dead end with a number of large crates but upon closer inspection it turned out that the crates were hiding a small passage through the wall to the outside of the town.  In the other direction the alley turned to the right and led to a large open market area.  Camel caravans came and went and various stalls lined the market, with people buying and selling various goods, one building towards the main entrance to the market had several scantily clad women in front, clearly a brothel Akio thought, there were also several soldiers armed with curved one handed swords and shields, they wore leather cuirass over white linen uniforms and a silver mask in the shape of a human face.   Strangely all of the people had their faces covered, the women wore vails and the men had cloth raped around their heads leaving just enough space for their eyes.

At one corner a merchant suddenly stood up, pointing a finger at the person in front of him shouting “Guards! Guards!  This man has tried to cheat me and therefore our master, arrest him!”  The accused tried to make a run for the entrance of the market, knocking over several boxes in an attempt to slow the guards behind him.  However, a guard with a golden mask managed to cut him off and with a quick swing of his sword cut the thief’s head clean off his shoulders causing the unfortunate soul to vaporize in black smoke.

“What the hell?!”  Mitsuko exclaimed obviously freaked out.  “Aki let’s get out of here, that thing said we could use it to exit right?”

“You don’t have to tell me twice!”  Akio attempted to reach for his phone in his pocket when he suddenly felt a yank on his collar.  The boy found himself being restrained by one of the palace’s guards.  “Hey let me go!” he shouted while he thrashed in a vain attempt to get away.

“Ahhh!”  Mitsuko screamed as she too was grabbed by a guard, “Let me go!”

“Who are you?!” the golden masked guarded shouted as he walked towards them.  “You two are clearly not traders.”

“We’re nobody!”  Mitsuko responded.  “We were just leaving, I swear!”  She attempted to pull her arm free but the guard’s grip was too tight.

“They don’t appear to be armed, so probably not assassins.” Said the guard holding Mitsuko.

“Then they are thieves!”  Shouted the guard restraining Akio.

“We are not thieves!”  The boy shouted still attempting to free himself.  “We just got lost and wondered in here.  Just let us go—OOF”

The gold faced guard slammed his fist into Akio’s stomach.  “Silence!  I will not listen to the lies of thieves!  Take them to the dungeon, we’ll let the master decide their fates.”

“Akio! Hey you jerk that was--”  
  
“Silence I said! Get them out of my sight!”  The guard pauses as he looks over Mitsuko.  “Wait take this one to the ‘garden’ instead.”

The guards began dragging the twins away, in opposite directions.  The siblings began to panic and struggled desperately to free themselves.  However, the guards seemed to be inhumanly strong and it seem that there was little chance either one could break free.  Suddenly Akio managed to work his left arm free and jabbed two fingers into the eyes of the guard before he could react, causing the guard to scream in pain and let the boy go.  Akio then dashed towards his sister.

“Sis!”  He yelled as he charged towards the guard that was restraining Mitsuko.  He hoped that with enough momentum he could knock the guard down and they could escape through the alley way, but…

“Aki watch out!”  Mitsuko cried, trying warn her brother of the danger but it was too late.  The golden masked guard hit Akio in the back of the head with the pommel of his sword.  “No!”

 

 

When Akio awoke he found himself laying on a cold stone floor of a small room, it was dimly lit as the only light source came from a torch in the hall just outside the… bars of his cell.  ‘I’m in a jail cell, ow shit my head.’  He lightly rubbed the back of his head as he looked around, trying to find some way out.  He quickly realized that his sister was not present, he hoped that she was in one of the other cells nearby.

“Mitsuko!” He yelled.  “Sis! Can you hear me?”  There was no response. 

“Damnit!”  He pound his fist against the bars angrily.  He then heard the sound of a door opening and footsteps.  “Hey let me out of here!  Where is my sister?!  I know someone is there!”

“Well what do we have here hmm?”  A male voice came from down the hall.  When the man finally came to Akio’s cell the boy was surprised to see a uniformed Tokyo police officer.  “Huh, you’re just a kid.”

“Wait you’re a police officer,” Akio said, “does that mean you’re here to help us?”

“Ahahaha! Oh boy do you have the wrong idea.”  The officer laughed.  “Master Obi Matsunaga and I have a little deal you see.  I let him sell product and keep the law off his back and he gives me a nice cut of the profits.  I also help get rid of any trouble makers like you for instance.  Hmm, let’s see figure out what kind of bogus charge I can come up with for you? Hehe”

“What?!  You’re a police officer!  How can you help a drug dealer?  There’s no way my mother would let someone like you get away with this!”  Akio shouted back, he was now furious.

“Your mother?”

“Yeah! The commissioner!”  The way the officer’s demeanor changed made him think that he shouldn’t have brought that up.  

“Shit, looks like my regular methods won’t work then.”  The officer pulls out his gun, “guess we got to do this the messy way.  Don’t like the idea of killing, especially a kid, but a deal is a deal.  But if it had to be any brat I’m glad it’s that bitch’s brat.”  An evil grin stretched across his face.  “Just hold still kid, and I’ll make this quick.”

“Wait!”  Akio pleaded, he needed to think of something to stall the officer.  “What do you have against my mother?”

“Oh it ain’t just me kid, a lot of us don’t like her.  She cut’s our pay and expects us to work all this overtime to cover up her failure at leading the police.  Meanwhile she’s still living in a nice fancy house, hanging out with all her rich friends like Haru Okumura and that actress, Ann Takamaki or Sakamoto, whatever.  Hell, have you seen that motorcycle she’s got?  Oh wait of course _you_ have.”  He laughs a little before continuing.  “So here I am, forced to get my hands dirty to help keep myself afloat.  I got a lot of debt, so when you’re mother cut my pay I had to do something.  A lot of us are hoping that if things keep going like they are the mayor will can her and install someone proper.  Too bad, maybe if she was a better commissioner you wouldn’t be in this mess.   You want someone to blame, blame her.”

“FUCK THAT!!!”  Akio shouted.

“Tsk, tsk, watch that temper of yours.  Oh, yeah the whole force knows about what happened in middle school.  That would have made a great news story you’re lucky mommy managed to convince the school not to press charges, guess she’s a better mom than a commissioner.  Of course I sympathize with you, it’s only natural to want to protect your sister.  By the way do you know what they do to girls in the ‘garden’?”

Akio froze, he’d heard what happens to girls in the underground.  The idea of anything like that happening to sis made his stomach turn and a renewed sense of panic overtook him.

“I’ll tell you, it’ll involve some drugs to make her nice and compliant.  Then she’ll get passed around from customer to customer.  They’ll mover her around to, make it harder to find her or for her to escape.  Hell, she might even end up being found dead from an overdose in some alley in Kyoto.  Poor Commissioner Makoto, I’m sure it was her dream to be commissioner but she just wasn’t good enough and now her son is going to get shot through the skull and her daughter is going to end up as a cum dum--”

“SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH YOU SON OF A BITCH!” erupted Akio.  “If you’re going to kill me don’t be a bitch about it!  Come in here and try it you coward!”  The officer began laughing manically at Akio but that just made him even angrier.  “COME ON, I’LL RIP YOU APART!  I PROMISE I WON’T HOLD BACK!”  He suddenly felt a splitting pain rip through his head as a new voice spoke inside his head.

**“Gods, finally!”**

‘What?’ he brought his hands to his head to try and stop the pain.

**“For too long you’ve been afraid of your own feelings, your anger.  Always pushing it down and pretending the unjust things around don’t bother you ever since then.  Tell me was it really justice that you got punished for defending your sister?”**

‘No’ the pain brought him to his knees and he was gritting his teeth so much he wondered if they would shatter.

**“That’s right, the adults should have done something but instead they sat around until things got violent and you were forced to act.  Then they had the gall to try and blame you!  If it hadn’t been for you mother you would’ve ended up like you father, unjustly chained!  Tell me, do you want to fight this injustice that stands before you threatening not only you but your mother and sister as well?  I can give you the power if you so desire.”**

‘Yes!’  Akio felt the pain condense to the area around the top half of his face.  Moving his hands to his face he felt a mask.  The mask was a silver masquerade style with small embossed acanthus scrolls decorating the edges.  ‘Who are you?’

**“I am thou, and thou art I”**

Akio sensing a sudden need to get the mask off, gripped the mask tightly and pulled with all his might, ripping the mask off along with chunks of flesh screaming in agony.  Black flames engulfed the area around him and a figure rose from the fames behind him.  The figure towered over Akio, he wore the armor of a roman general.  The chest had an ornate design complete with muscle and a golden eagle in the center, the only imperfection was a hole pierced just below the eagle on the left side.  A red cloak hung over his shoulders and in his right hand was a dagger the tip stained with blood and in his right he carried a scroll.  For a head the figure had a ball of black flame with a silver plated iron mask with red eyes and grimaced mouth hovering in front. 

**“I am Lucius Junius Brutus and this is my oath hold it in your heart for it is now yours as well!  By this guiltless blood before the kingly injustice I swear – you and the gods as my witnesses – I make myself the one who will prosecute, by what force I am able, the injustice of this world, by sword, by fire, by any means hence so that none may suffer the injustice of tyrants!”**

As Brutus spoke Akio’s clothes changed.  He wore a long red tunic that stopped just above his knees, overtop was a muscled black iron cuirass with a red sash tied to the bottom around the waist and a small red scarf around his neck.  He wore black wool trousers and black leather boots and black iron greaves, the edges of which were silver plated as was the cuirass.  On his right forearm he wore a gold plated vambrace with an image of the sun engraved on it, his left arm and hand was covered in overlapping curved segments of armor the same color as the cuirass and greaves.  He held a gladius in his right hand and two roman javelins known as pilum were strapped to his back.  Akio could feel an incredible power coursing him and he couldn’t fight the wicked grin coming across his face as he stared down the now frightened corrupt police officer.

 “What the hell?!”  The officer raised his gun and fired but the shot was deflected by Brutus’ dagger.  Brutus then charged the bars of the jail cell and with a few lightning fast slashes removed the obstacle.  The officer attempted to fire another shot at Brutus but before he could Akio lunged forward and with one swing cut off his arm.  The officer screamed in pain and fell to the floor.  Brutus transformed back into the mask on Akio’s face and the boy bent down and pulled the officer’s badge from his chest as the officer began to dissolve.

“Officer Okura Shirota, huh?  Guess I’ll have to look you up when I get back to reality, since this sure as hell isn’t the real world.”  He said with a slight grin as he crushed the badge in his armored hand before it too disintegrated.  “But first,” he turned towards the exit with a look of determination on his face, “to save my sister.”

 

 

A woman sat at a small table in the corner of the bar, soft jazz filled the air.  Behind the wooden bar top stood the bartender wearing a traditional barkeep outfit, white dress shirt under a black vest and back pants and dress shoes, what wasn’t traditional was the bartender himself.  The bartender seemed to lack a head or hands, although he clearly had hands as a glass and rag hovered near his wrists, the rag making small circles across the glass to clean it.

The place was dimly lit but the light above the table was enough for the woman to read the large book she held.  The woman had yellow eyes and long platinum hair with a blue headband that had yellow flowers and silver butterfly wings on each end.  She wore a blue dress with a small gold ‘V’ on her chest and white stockings and black dress shoes.  Black gloves covered her arms up past her elbows, all told she look quite beautiful.  From her expression she looked like she was waiting to give someone bad news and was apprehensive about what their reaction would be.  As the door at the front of the bar opened she sighed as she closed her book and looked up at the man who had just walked in. ‘He got here faster than I thought’

The man was tall and wore an all-black thief like outfit, a yellow tool pouch hung from his belt and he wore a yellow scarf around his neck.  As the man walked over to the table he pulled out a cigar.

“Got here as quick as I could, sounded important.” The man said as he sat down.  “Got a light? I haven’t had time to procure a new lighter.”

The woman leaned forward and snapped her fingers, a blue flame then danced above her thumb.  The man leaned forward and began to light his cigar, the new light source illuminated his blue cat eyes and black cat ears that stuck out the top of his head surrounded by his curly black hair.  Those two features, along with his slightly larger than normal canines and almost claw like finger nails were the only non-human features he had.  

After taking a few puffs of his cigar the man asked, “So what’s so important Lavenza?”

“Morgana,” Lavenza began speaking as calmly as she could, “Ren wasn’t the one who received the metanav.”

“Was it Makoto?” 

“… No”

Morgana’s eyes widened as he realized the implications of what Lavenza was saying.  “Oh crap.”

“Indeed.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Persona fact: Lucius Junius Brutus was one of the founders of the Roman Republic. Even though his family was killed by the king of Rome Brutus acted kind of like a fool to trick the king into believing that he wasn't a threat. However one day a female relative of his, Lucretia, was raped by the king's son and felt that she and her family were so dishonored that she stabbed herself with a dagger in front of her husband and Brutus before the men could react after telling them what happened. Brutus was so enraged that he pulled the dagger out of her chest and rallied the people of Rome and drove the king out of the city and helped found the republic. That oath bit was also something that he did although I altered it slightly to fit the story. Unfortunately he died in battle when the old king tried to take his throne back by force. He lead a cavalry charge against the king's cavalry which was commanded by Brutus' own cousin and the two ended up spearing each other. After the battle was won and his body taken back to Rome the noble women mourned his death for a whole year in honor of his vengeance of Lucretia's rape.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a looong time since I posted. Sorry about that, will try to do better.

The room Mitsuko found herself in was very different from that of her brother’s.  The room was rather luxurious, a large gold chandelier hung from the center of the ceiling and the stone floor was covered in ornate rugs and large soft cushions topped with pillows.  The walls were white with various scenes painted on them, usually images of scantily clad women in different poses and maybe some cupids here and there, and one corner of the room was dominated by a large marble fountain with nude women pouring the water from the jars they held.  Mitsuko was able to get a quick idea of what this room was for, and if the decorations weren’t enough of a hint the shadows of women laying on some of the cushions and giggling to themselves while wearing nothing but gold jewelry was a dead giveaway.

After the guards threw her in the room and locked the door, Mitsuko had searched for a way out however the only window in the room was blocked by bars and even if it wasn’t she didn’t think fall from the window would leave her in any shape to make an escape.  The only plan she could think of was to sit next the door and attempt to run out when someone entered, she just hoped that they wouldn’t swing the door open to fast and smack her.  In the meantime she wondered if she could get any more information from the app that had somehow brought them to this place.  The app’s encyclopedia tab proved to have a great amount of information about all sorts of things: palaces, shadows, and personas.  “I could really use one of those right about now” she said to herself. 

Finally she heard footsteps on the other side of the wall behind her and readied herself.  As the door swung open she caught it and used it as a shield to hide herself as two figures entered the room.  Once they were far enough inside she quickly went around the door and through the doorway, only to be caught by the guard stationed outside the room.  The guard grabbed her by the throat and carried her back inside the room, ignoring her kicking, dropping her on the cushion in the center of the room before returning to its post, leaving the poor girl gasping for breath.  

“Fu-*gasp*-cking *wheeze* hell!”  She coughed out as she propped herself up on her right elbow while her left hand massaged her throat.  She looked up at the two figures standing in front of her, her red eyes an inferno of anger.  In front of her stood the shadow of Obi Matsunaga, at least Mitsuko assumed so, she remembered that the app said that this was his palace and he certainly didn’t look like a guard.  He was tall with black hair and thin mustache and a little bit of a gut.  The man wore fine silk robes that were blue with gold patterns, a large gold medallion hung from his neck, he wore a gold ring on each of his fingers, each ring having different colored jewels embedded in it.  Behind him stood one of his golden masked guards.

“That’s what happens when you try and run.  I am Obi Matsunaga, and this is my grand bazaar, well this here is the brothel” he said slyly.  His eyes slowly scan Mitsuko’s body like an appraiser judging an antique, “very nice, you’d fetch a good price.”  He reached his hand to try and hold Mitsuko’s face to get a better look, the girl quickly swatted it away.  Matsunaga frowned, “I see we’ll have to break that defiant nature of yours, shouldn’t take too long, but …”

Shadow Matsunaga stood up straight and reexamined Mitsuko, “I don’t normally, but your looks make me want to ask; what is your name?”

“Mitsuko Amamiya,” Mitsuko replied glaring at her captor, “and you have my brother in your dungeon.”

“Oh… well that changes things,” the shadow responded.  He began to pace back and forth deciding how to proceed with this new information.   Mitsuko scanned the room again in a vain attempt to find an escape route and she found herself wishing her brother was there with her.

“Better just kill her,” Shadow Matsunaga ordered the guard next to him, his words sending a chill down Mitsuko’s spin the likes of which she had never experienced before.

“W-wait, what!” Mitsuko stammered out, and Matsunaga turned his attention back toward the girl.

“Sorry dear, you would make a good little flower but you come with just a little too much risk for my liking.  I prefer to deal with flowers who either no one will miss or whose parents are to unimportant to be a threat and you don’t fit into either of those categories miss police commissioner’s daughter.  And I know better than to trust a couple of teenagers to keep their mouths shut.  So it would just be safer to kill you and your brother.”  A grin appeared on his face, “Guess it just wasn’t your lucky day.”  He then turned and started walking toward the door.

He paused before exiting the room, turning his head just slightly in Mitsuko’s direction, “I’ll tell your brother you said hi, if he’s still alive that is.”  He chuckled a little to himself as he closed the door behind him, leaving Mitsuko alone with the palace guard, cold and lifeless eyes staring at her through its golden mask.

He began to walk towards her…

Mitsuko’s mind begins to race as she instinctively backs away from the guard.  Should she make a break for the door? Would she even be able to get past the guard to get to the door?   If she did would she be able to get past the guard that caught her the first time she tried to escape?

The guard moves closer…

She hoped for a rescue but she knew that that was impossible.  Both her parents were at work, and in the real world.  Her brother was in the same situation as her or already dead.

The guard moves closer…

That last thought makes her stomach turn.  The idea of her twin brother’s lifeless body in a cold prison was too much to bear and she was likely to end up the same way. 

Closer…

Would their bodies return to the real world?  Or would their parents come home to an empty house, their children gone never to be seen again?  She feels the wall against her back, panic begins to take over her mind.

The guard stands right in front of her and draws its sword…

“What do I do?” She thought, fear gripping at her mind.  “I don’t want to die!  I don’t want Aki to die!  I don’t want to die!

**“Well what do you want to do?”** A voice that was not her own suddenly rang through her head.  Suddenly the fear inside her gave way to a single clear thought.  “Fight,” she answered.

**“Then may I grant you my assistance?  I promise with my power you will be able to save both yourself and your brother.”**

“Yes, do it.”

**“Call my name and etch it into your heart.”**

The guard raised his sword above its head and prepared to bring it down on Mitsuko…

“Telesilla!” Mitsuko shouted.  Suddenly an explosive force shot out from her body, knocking the surprised guard back several feet.  Mitsuko suddenly felt a horrible pain on her face that soon rocketed through her whole body and reaching with her hands found a domino mask made of gold had been placed on her face.  Feeling a desperate need to remove the mask she gripped it and began struggling to pull it off as the pain continued to torment her.

**“Hahaha! Wonderful! When you can’t rely on others to save you, you must do it yourself!  Now it is time to form the contract.  I am thou, thou art I.  From this moment on my power is yours, and your enemies are my enemies.  Let all who are unjustice tremble at our might!  Be they the armies of Sparta or Hell itself, no evil shall escape our divine light!”**

And with that Mitsuko finally tore the mask from her face with a blood curdling scream, blood from her face splattering on the floor as gold flames engulfed her.  The flames were warm but did not burn, instead they felt invigorating and she felt this large power from inside her.  As the flames dissipated they revealed her changed wardrobe. 

She wore Greek linothorax style armor, dyed white as the base color and each piece was outlined in red.  Each shoulder piece was decorated with a silver crescent moon and connected to the chest piece with gold fittings.  The chest piece was mainly white although the bottom half was blue with gold patterns similar to what might be found on ancient Greek pottery.  She wore a blue tunic under the armor that went half way to her knees and she wore bronze greaves that covered all the way up to her knee caps and short leather boots.  Her arms were mainly bare save a gold armband on her upper right arm and a small oval silver shield on her left.  She was armed with a standard short double edged sword that hung from a scabbard on her hip.

Standing behind her was her persona, Telesilla.  Telesilla stood tall wearing golden hoplite armor and her face was concealed by a Corinthian helmet, golden flames flowed out from the helm like hair.  In her right hand she held a spear, the other held a large round shield. 

The guard stood in shock unsure what to do and Mitsuko didn’t give him any time to make a decision, as she pointed at the guard and shouted, “HAMA!”  Telesilla pointed her spear at the guard and a ray of divine light shot up from the floor beneath the guard vaporizing him instantly.  With the enemy defeated Telesilla vanished and a golden domino style mask reappeared on Mitsuko’s face. 

“That was awesome!”  Mission exclaimed “Ha-ha, Akio's going to be so jealous!”  She then remembered the serious of the situation and quickly brought herself back into focus.  She examined her new outfit, twisting her body different ways to test its range of movement.  The armor was made light fabric layered several times and contoured to her body allowing her full range of motion, much to her satisfaction.  She then jumped in place to get a feel for her boots, which made surprisingly little sound on the stone floor.  “Good,” she thought, “that’ll make sneaking around easier.” 

She then noticed that there was a small quiver hanging from her right hip full of arrows but she had no bow.  She pulled one of the arrows from her quiver and suddenly the shield on her left arm transformed into a short silver bow.  She found that she could transform the shield into a bow and vice versa on command.  “Convenient” she thought, and returned the arrow to its quiver.  Finding no other issues with her new digs, she made her way to the door.  “Better hurry and find him, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I was only able to save myself.”

She slowly and carefully opened the door and peered out.  To her relief the guard that had been outside the room seemed to have left with Matsunaga, allowing her to quickly move down the hallway to the central corridor.  She silently made her way to the end of the corridor and began to descend the stairway, however she heard footsteps coming up the stairs towards her. She quickly doubled back and seeing no other alternative close enough, took cover behind a statue.  She held her breath as the guard moved past her, it then dawned on her that she had no idea where to go to find her brother.  So, perhaps this could be an excellent opportunity for her…

 

Akio was getting increasingly more frustrated, the door out of the dungeon was locked and so he needed to find a different route out but that was proving to be rather difficult.  The underground pathways that he now found himself in formed a maze it seemed, with many paths leading to nowhere and rooms that were either empty or seemingly in the middle of construction.  The app did say that the palace wasn’t fully formed yet so perhaps this is what that meant?  In any case this was only delaying him from rescuing his sister and the longer he went without finding her, the more his worry fueled his frustration.

“Hee-ho.  Ow.” A weak voice pulled him away from his thoughts and he turned towards its source, a small snowman with a blue jester like hat and collar slowly crawling away from Akio. 

“Oh? One of you didn’t die eh?”   Akio said as he made his way over to the shadow, at least he could continue to take his frustrations out on monsters down here.

“W-wait! Can’t we-hee work something out ho?”  The snowman pleaded.

Akio contemplated the shadow’s plea for a bit, “what can it hurt?” he thought.  “Sure, if you can tell me how to get to out of here, I might be inclined to let you live.”

“Well I have this map, will that work?” the snowman holds out a folded piece of parchment which Akio grabs and begins to look over.  It doesn’t take him long to figure out exactly what he needs and he feels himself relax a bit.  “Hee-ho, you’ll let me go ho?”

Akio waves his hand, not even looking up from the map, “Yeah sure, I got to go save my sister and finding out how to get to her has gotten me in a better mood.”

“Oh, you have a sister?” the snowman asked curiously.

“Twin sister yeah.  We both got nabbed and separated so now I’m going to go find her so we can get out of here.”

“Hee-ho but there are a lot of guards, aren’t you scared hee-ho?”

Akio puffed out his pointed at the center of his chest with his right thumb in dramatic fashion, “Not me, I’ll fight an army to rescue my sister, that’s what siblings do!”  Exactly why he was showing off to this little snowman he wasn’t sure, but the snowman seemed to enjoy Akio’s display of bravado as it began jumping up and down in excitement. 

“Hee-ho, Hee-ho!  You’re really cool!”  Its eyes went wide as if it just had an idea, “hey I just remembered something ho!  I don’t belong here hee-ho I live in the sea of the human heart!  I am Jack Frost; I am you and you are me!”  It then burst into light that was then absorbed by Akio’s mask.

Akio stood stunned, “uhh, that was interesting…” He shook his head and reexamined the map, he could figure things out after he found his sister he reasoned.  He quickly found the route he needed to take on the map and set off. 

 

Mitsuko stood in front of a wall with three torches.  “If mister pumpkin head was telling the truth, one of these opens a secret passage to some underground pathways and the others are booby-trapped.”

“My name is Jack-o’-Lantern! Hee-HO!” rang a voice from in her head.

“Yeah, whatever.  Pipe down or I’ll show you what happens to pumpkins on Halloween.”

“Hee-ho you’re mean...”  The voice replied weakly before going silent.

Mitsuko stared at each of the torches trying to find some clue as to the correct one to pull.  Suddenly her vision darkened and the torch in front of her began to glow, surprised she jumped back and her vision returned to normal.  She then refocused to try and perform the stunt and second time and once again her vision darkened and the torch in front of her lit up.  Noticing that only one torch was glowing, she decided to pull that one, hoping that her hunch was correct.  She heard a click from behind the wall and the section in front of her opened up revealing a staircase.  “Jackpot!”

Upon entering the stairway she noticed a lever on the wall and pulled, closing the entrance behind her.  Pulling her phone out of another small pouch on her belt she used the flashlight to make her way down the stairs until she arrived to a door.  She reached for the handle when suddenly the door swung open with an unknown figure standing on the other side.  The light from the hallway coming in blinded her, preventing her from identifying the figure right away.  On defensive instinct she shined the flashlight at the figures face as she delivered a kick between the figures legs.  As the figure slumped to the floor Mitsuko jumped back but before she could draw her weapon the figure spoke, “Ow, FUCK!” and Mitsuko recognized the voice.

“Akio?!”  She asked in surprise.  She rubbed her eyes to help adjust to the lighting and looked the figure over.  Sure enough the person on their knees in front of her hands cradling his _very_ sore groin was none other than her brother, although he was now wearing a black metal masquerade mask, and armor.  She guess he must have awakened a persona too.  “I… uh, was just coming to rescue you.”

“Good job,” Akio responded, his voice a little higher than normal.  “Great rescue, 10 out of 10.”

“Well you can still be a sarcastic ass so you must not be hurt that bad.”

“You kicked me in the nuts! With metal shins,-oh hoho fuck me- of course it hurts!”

“Right, sorry.  It’s just that you startled me and I didn’t recognize you so I didn’t know if you were another guard or something.”

Akio slowly raised himself off the floor and lightly brushed himself off, “It’s… whatever, it’s fine, I’m good.”  He looked at his sister and noticed her change in attire. “Guess we both have personas huh?” he said with a small grin.

Mitsuko placed a hand on her hip and matched her brother’s grin, “man I was really hoping to make you jealous with my cool new powers but you just had to ruin my fun huh?”

“Ha, that’s what brothers are for right?”  Akio responded.

“Yeah, _little_ brothers.”  Mitsuko teased.

“We. Are. Twins.”  Akio said with more than slight irritation in his voice.

“~A minute is still a minute~” Mitsuko sang teasingly while waving her hands from side to side and dancing around her brother.  He groaned in response, much to her delight, causing her to snicker.  She turned to face him again, “I am glad to see you though.”

“You too sis,” Akio responded with a warm smile.  “So worried about me eh?”

“Of course, that asshole said he was going to have you killed.  How could I not be?”

“Wait who’s he?”

“Obi Matsunaga, the palace ruler.”  Mitsuko answers.  “Guy’s a creep.  Said we were to ‘high risk’ since our mom is the police commissioner.”

“Yeah I ran into a corrupt police officer named Okura Shirota… he didn’t have very many nice things to say about mom.  We won’t have to worry about him though.”

“Oh really? Hmm, we should probably find a way out of here.  It’s still probably really dangerous here and it’s only a matter of time before more guards show up.  You have any idea how to get out of here?  Preferably one that doesn’t take us through the brothel?”  She motions toward the doorway she came from.

“Well I do have a map here,” he hands it to her and Mitsuko begins looking it over, “but going through a brothel doesn’t sound-”

“NO,” Mitsuko cuts him off and Akio chuckles, “just kidding sis.”

Mitsuko rolls her eyes and goes back to studying the map, “how did you get this?”

“A snowman gave it to me and then went inside my head.  I know that sounds crazy.”

Mitsuko shakes her head, “no, I had a pumpkin do the same thing.”   Akio raises his eyebrow and Mitsuko pauses, “This has been a _really_ weird day.”

“It’s about to get weirder.” A voice from behind them spoke.  The twins turned around but didn’t see anybody until they looked down.  To their surprise the voice seemed to come from their cat, tail swishing side to side in amusement. 

“Morgana?” they asked at the same time, the expression on their faces was one of complete confusion.

“What’s up amateurs?”

The twins’ eyes practically budged out of their heads and their mouths dropped open in shock.  It seemed that indeed, this day was only going to get weirder.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Persona fact: Telesilla was a famous female Greek poet in Argos although only a few verses of her poems exist today. According to legend after Argos' army was crushed by Sparta she lead the cities defense by arming the women of the city with any weapon they could find including sacred artifacts in the city temples. She and her army of female badasses managed to convince the Spartan army and its king to head back to Sparta thus saving the city.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello this is my first fanfic and as the summary would suggest I'm planning on it having multiple chapters. Hopefully I'll be up to the task haha. Not sure how often I'll be able to update but hopefully you all will enjoy it! Also I'll update the tags as I go along as I introduce other characters and relationships.


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